PONTIFICATE OF POPE FRANCIS - COMMEMORATIVE 2 EURO COIN PROOF VERSION

Year of Mercy
The design of the two euro coin dedicated to the Holy Year of Mercy is a work by Mariangela Crisciotti featuring Saint Martin of Tours, a soldier of the Roman Imperial Guard. While on horseback during a journey, he came across a poor, thinly clad man shivering from the cold. Using his sword, he cut off part of his cloak and gave it to him. The depiction is tied to classical iconography and an ideal representation of one of the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy, to clothe the naked, recalling the words of Jesus, "I was naked and you gave me clothing". According to tradition, the night following this episode, Jesus appeared to Saint Martin in a dream as a poor man with the cloak and said, "Martin, as yet only a catechumen, has covered me with his cloak". When Saint Martin woke up, he found his cloak miraculously intact, and decided to be baptized and continue his life only under the banner of Christ.